CIA's role in Iraq, Afghanistan likely to stay extensive

by Greg Miller - Feb. 8, 2012 12:09 AMWashington Post

WASHINGTON - The CIA is expected to maintain a large clandestine presence in Iraq and Afghanistan long after the departure of conventional U.S. troops as part of a plan by the Obama administration to rely on a spies and Special Operations forces to protect U.S. interests in the two war zones, U.S. officials said.

U.S. officials said that the CIA's massive stations in Kabul and Baghdad will probably remain the agency's largest overseas outposts for years, even if they shrink from record staffing levels set at the height of American efforts in those nations to fend off insurgencies and install capable governments.

The withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq in December has moved the CIA's emphasis there toward more traditional espionage -- monitoring developments in the increasingly antagonistic government, seeking to suppress al-Qaida's affiliate in the country and countering the influence of Iran.

In Afghanistan, the CIA is expected to have a more aggressively operational role. U.S. officials said the agency's paramilitary capabilities are seen as tools for keeping the Taliban off balance, protecting the government in Kabul and preserving access to Afghan airstrips that enable armed CIA drones to hunt al-Qaida remnants in Pakistan.

As President Barack Obama seeks to end a decade of conflict, the emerging assignments for the CIA suggest it will play a key part in the search for ways to exert U.S. power in more streamlined and surgical ways.

As a result, the CIA station in Kabul -- which at one point had responsibility for as many as 1,000 agency employees in Afghanistan-- is expected to expand its collaboration with Special Operations forces when the drawdown of conventional troops begins.

U.S. Navy Adm. William McRaven signaled the transition during remarks in Washington on Tuesday. "I have no doubt that Special Operations will be the last to leave Afghanistan," McRaven said.